A Marine took a flag from a fallen Japanese soldier. Decades later, it’s back with the soldier’s family.

August 15, 2017

HIGASHI-SHIRAKAWA, Japan — Seventy-three years ago, a young Marine from Montana, deployed to the Pacific island of Saipan, stumbled across a body. A Japanese soldier, lying on his back, dead. Poking out from underneath his jacket was a “good luck flag” — a Japanese flag covered with the signatures and good luck wishes of 180 people from his family and his hometown of Higashi-Shirakawa, deep in the Japanese Alps. “Long-lasting fortune in battle” was written in large letters across the top.The 20-year-old Marine, Marvin Strombo, who was part of a scout-sniping platoon, reached down and took the flag. For decades, it was displayed in the glass-fronted gun cabinet in his home in Missoula, Mont., becoming a talking point among visitors and a point of pride for the veteran.But on Tuesday, the 72nd anniversary of Japan’s World War II surrender, Strombo traveled some 5,300 miles from Missoula to this remote village, …READ MORE ON WASHINGTONPOST.COM